Saramoto Sagas - Dragon Ball Hunt
by Tashhhh
Summary: On a planet similar to our own, ancestral relatives of the saiyans still continue on in sparse numbers. Here, a young scientist discovered the dragon balls and set out to gather them. She met a little saiyan girl living on a remote island, isolated from humanity and raised by the peculiar Kozaru monkey tribe. Together they search, but what will they find in the end? OC, Rewrite
1. Chapter 1

Saramoto Sagas - Dragon Ball Hunt

Disclaimer: This is a fan fiction.

Summary: A young scientist, searching for the dragon balls, meets a strange child in the wilderness. Isolated from humanity and raised by a peculiar tribe of monkeys, the naive warrior's brute strength proves useful as they set out together to fulfill an uncanny quest.

Notes: This is the same as my other DBZ fan fiction. If you are interested, please bear with me as I rewrite it. I was very unhappy with a lot of things, but hopefully the changes I've come up with will make it better this time!

* * *

On a planet far away, on a sunny summer day, a motorboat skipped along the surface of the tropical ocean as waves rolled in the distance. A teenage girl leaned back, feeling the warm wind in her long, bright red hair. A speck of land caught her attention and she squinted at the horizon. She took a look at a small, rectangular, hand-held device in her lap. "Hmm… Just up ahead... it's gotta be there!" she exclaimed.

Meanwhile, on the edge of a forest, a large creature stalked in the shadows, making soft footprints in the sandy soil. A small, brown monkey was playing with a rock where the sunlight peeked through the canopy. She heard the bushes rustle and suddenly jumped up and tried to run as she heard a fateful growl.

She was about to become cat food when, out of nowhere a blur of black and peachy colors flew through the air and slammed into the predator. He had suffered some blunt injury to his neck and struggled to get up. A small human child, barely taller than her monkey friend, stood in a defensive posture gripping a handmade spear. She had a mess of shaggy black hair and hardly wore anything except for a loincloth made out of a jaguar's fur. Although it was strange for a human, she also had a furry brown tail.

"Run back now!" the monkey yelled.

"Wait!" The girl closed in on the large cat. It sensed her intent and decided to try its luck at fighting back. With a fierce growl, it suddenly lunged up again. But with a dodge, a kick, and a spear through the heart, the beast finally lay still.

"Nam, not hurt?!" the child's furry friend fussed over her.

"No! Nam stronger than Jaguar! I killed," she stated proudly.

"Good! Safer for Kozaru," the monkey nodded. "Go home now."

"OK!"

As they walked together they took a familiar path along the beach. Nam carried the body of the jaguar over her shoulders. They heard a roar off somewhere in the distance.

"Another jaguar?!" The female monkey looked around nervously.

"What is that?" Nam pointed to the ocean. The source of the loud roar was an unknown object traveling along the surface of the ocean. It was unlike anything the islanders had ever seen before. It created huge waves behind it as it floated up to the island and landed on the sand. A woman climbed over the side of the boat and stepped onto the sand. She had a tan short-sleeved jacket with some lace decoration over a white tank top, and a blue-green short skirt.

"Land-ho! Huh?" she flinched and jumped out of the way as some crazy jungle kid ran up past her.

"Hi-YAH!" she attacked the boat with a kick that caught it under the tip and caused it to flip up and over, landing back in the water with a splash. "Take that, monster!"

"W-w-what?! What did you do that for you freak!? Now my stuff is all wet!" She tried to run over to the boat as the kid cut her off.

"Away from monster, weird youkai! Your time now!"

"WAAAIT!" She threw her hands in the air as the child seemed about ready to run her through. "I'm not a youkai, I'm just a normal human!"

"Human? You?"

"Yes, silly, just like you! See?"

"No move!" she said distrustfully, remaining tense as she examined the woman.

"I need to get my wallet before it floats away..." the woman started to complain as she was held up at spear-point. The monkey that was with the child hesitantly drew a bit nearer as well.

"You have weird hair color… like tomato."

"S-shut up about my hair! Yours is full of mud!"

"Hm… OK," she seemed satisfied and relaxed somewhat. The redhead gave a sigh of relief and quickly grabbed a soaked backpack out of the water. She cringed as she set it further up on the sand and started pulling some things out of it to hopefully dry out faster. _Good thing I had the locator in my hand when I stepped out!_ She thought to herself.

"But what monster was that?"

"That's not a monster, that's a boat! You live on an island and you don't even know what a boat is?"

"Boat roar like jaguar."

"It has a motor on it!" she snapped, getting irritated. "Who are you anyways, Tarzan?!"

"Hm? I Nam."

"I Tuc." The monkey added in a small voice. The redhead did a double take and gaped at her. "Th-the monkey can talk?!" They exchanged a glance and then stared at her as if they didn't understand her surprise at all.

"Tuc is Nam older sister. We are Kozaru tribe. But who you?"

"Well, my name is Ruby. I haven't heard of your tribe, but then again I don't watch the nature channel very often."

"Hmm... OK! Ruby come Kozaru home! Welcome in group!"

"Um, sure, just gotta check..." _It must be just up the path here,_ she thought. "Great! Lead the way!"

About 10 minutes later, they were walking through the forest again.

"Why are you staring at my butt?"

"Why Ruby no have tail?" Ruby's eyes widened when she noticed the girl's tail. _Why does she have a tail?_ As if in a trance, she reached out and stroked it like a cat's tail. Nam stiffened and pulled her tail in to her body, looking a bit disturbed at Ruby.

"Wow, you really have a tail," she breathed. "I've never seen that before. Humans don't have tails. You're weird," she concluded.

"But Ruby also weird! Come from ocean! How you live in water?"

She chuckled at the girl's ignorance, "I don't live in the ocean. There's much more land out there besides this island, and millions of people."

"Kozaru have story of human. We know only Nam," said Tuc.

"So what you're raised by monkeys and never seen another human until now?"

"Mm, hm!" Nam nodded and announced, "Home time!" She and her companion started climbing up the boulders and thick logs around the forest floor.

"Excuse me?! You can't seriously expect a lady like me to follow you up there! Hello?!" she shouted after them as they kept climbing up. When they ignored her, she pouted and sat down on a rock. "Ew, it's all damp," she muttered, and checked her device. "Oh, come on!" She shoved the machine into one of her pockets, and started climbing up the trees. It wasn't actually that hard to climb up, because it was a tropical rainforest with huge trees that even adult gorillas could live in. There was a rough den and living space created from a combination of tree limbs, canopy soil, and artificially added wooden planks. A totem pole had been constructed in the middle of the area. A few freshly plucked flowers lay around it. Several monkeys were hanging around the den and ogled at the city teenager. Some of them wore simple decorations made out of flowers or grass. Ruby carefully crawled up on all fours, being careful not to slip on the mossy parts of the logs.

"Ruby really human? Pretty bad climbing," Nam remarked. The spear was stuck into the ground and

"Ugh, you—for your information, MOST humans DON'T live in jungles! I guess these other monkeys are the Kozaru or whatever you called it… Eh?!" Suddenly, her expression perked up dramatically as she looked towards the center of the canopy. "Ahah! That's it! It's the two-star ball!" she exclaimed and hopped across to the totem pole and plucked off the central decoration from it. It was a very small ball, like a ping pong ball. It was made of a pearly white material and had two purple stars inside that seemed to be visible from every angle.

Nam jumped up and tugged on Ruby's arm. "No touch Taf! Is guardian spirit! He protect tribe from bad guys!"

"Don't be silly, it's just a decoration! Besides, isn't that what _you_ do?"

"Put down Taf!" One of the Kozaru pleaded with a male voice.

"Why move Taf?" asked another male.

"Is Tomato bad guy?" came a female monkey's worried voice.

"W-wait! This treasure is more than you think! I need it for something important. Well… I wanted to keep this quiet, but I guess there's no harm in telling a bunch of monkeys…" She reached around in her pockets and pulled out two balls similar to the island's artifact. One of them had four stars and the other had five.

"Eh?! More Taf!" "Is his family!" The monkeys mused.

"No, no, no. They aren't gods. They're called dragon balls."

"What is dragon?" Nam tilted her head.

"OK, listen. In the civilized world where I'm from, I'm considered to be pretty darn smart—a scientist—a woman of learning! I first found this ball with five stars by chance, but after noticing some strange properties about it, I did some more research. I found that it emitted a unique type of energy which I could use to detect five more of them around the world. And I also discovered a legend in an ancient book that just might be true."

"What is legend?" "What happened?!" "Tell more!" They all asked in suspense.

"Apparently, if you collect all six of these dragon balls, you can summon Shenron, the Dragon God!"

"Gasp!" "Really God?!" "What is dragon?"

"And you can be granted three wishes. Anything you want!"

"Ooooh!" "Aaaah!"

"So… yeah, that's pretty much it, now do you mind if I take this? OK?! Hehehe!"

"Wait!" a Kozaru male wearing a grass skirt stepped forward. "You can take Taf's ball," he said, and Ruby let out the breath she had been holding. "Wait! Nam go with you."

"Pa, I go with her?"

"Nam human, still child. But Nam stronger than all Kozaru. Maybe can get much, much stronger! But stay with Kozaru, you stay weak." Ruby listened to the conversation in thought. _Even though they all look the same to me, Nam really thinks of them as family the same way any normal people would. I sure could use that strength of hers, though._

"Come on, kid! You'll love it. And visiting back here is much easier than you think."

"But, Kozaru must defend! Must fight! I go, monsters hurt us."

"No. Nam kill almost all monsters here. Much safer now. Only little danger left now. Kozaru can defend it."

"O-OK. Nam go..."

Ruby had already started climbing down carefully as Nam was saying her heartfelt goodbyes to her childhood home. As she was about halfway down, the child leaped down past her, taking her little spear with her.

"Climb faster, Tomato! Let's go!"

"TOMATO?! Why, you cheeky little-buAAAAH!" Ruby yelped as she lost her footing and slid down the moist wood. The girl laughed loudly as she ran out towards the beach.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, you better hope that my boat still works or else we're gonna have a bit of a problem."

"Hmm, hmm," Nam flipped the boat back over and shifted it onto the edge of the sand. Ruby picked up the still wet backpack and got in, then made a face as she stepped into at least an inch of sandy water in the boat. She turned and sat down, putting the backpack on the side of her bench. Ignoring the redhead's glares, Nam pushed the boat into the water and kept pushing it by swimming. Then she realized that she had to get in the boat too, so she climbed up on the side of the boat, causing it to tip in her direction.

"Aaack!" Ruby jumped and clung to the other side of the boat, as her backpack slid off the bench and splashed on the bottom of the boat again. "GRRRR! You! Sit! Down! There! Stay there!"

Nam kneeled on the other bench. Then it was her turn to be freaked out as the teenage girl started the engine and slowly maneuvered the boat to point away from the shore. When Ruby hit the gas and caused the boat to accelerate rapidly, Nam wobbled off of her bench. "Wah!" She splashed on the floor and gripped the bench tightly. "M-monster boat!" As they reached a constant speed and stopped rocking so much, she slowly began to peak over the edge of the boat, apprehension giving way to awe as she looked out at the ocean and at how tiny her island already looked in the distance. She dipped her hand in the water and was surprised by the amount of resistance. "Boat faster than fish!"

Ruby chuckled at the island girl's amazement. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a device from one of the upper pockets. It was a handheld device with a semi-transparent screen hinged onto a headphone-shaped plastic part. The screen was tinted blue, and the other side had control buttons on one side. Ruby put it on over her right eye and ear, and used her right hand to operate the buttons. "Phew, it still works!"

"Hm?" Nam looked up from playing with the water, and turned to Ruby. "What is that?"

"What this? It's my scouter. Well, it does a lot of things, but I'm using the GPS for navigation now."

"Huh?"

"It tells me where to go." Sensing her next question, Ruby pointed at the dragon ball locator in her lap. "And this device is one I built to track the location of the dragon balls."

"Ruby built?"

"Yes, well, I'm not only known for my looks, you know. You could say I'm also somewhat of a prodigy."

"A projigy?"

"A smart kid."

"Oh."

After a few minutes, another island came in to view. "We here!" Nam shouted.

"That's just one island. We'll get back to the mainland tomorrow."

"Oh."

They set up camp just a bit up the beach, still in view of the shore. Ruby had set up a tent and a campfire, but the matches she brought were still damp. She got startled when Nam shot a beam of pure energy from her hand at the pile of wood causing it to roar to life. She made some camping food from packets. "Here, try this, it's called hot chocolate."

"Hotchacolet," she said and gave it a sip. Soon she had finished it, and a second, and a third cup.

"That's enough already! I've only got so much food for myself in the first place!"

"Nam get own food!" she ran off to the beach. A few minutes later, she came back dragging up a fish 10 times her size. "Eeek! You're not really going to eat that are you?!" A while later, she was sitting and fiddling with her scouter when she heard a burp and looked over, seeing a fish skeleton and a little girl lying on the ground, satisfied. "She really ate that," she remarked with wide eyes.

"G'night then," said the teen and snuggled into her sleeping bag. "Unf!" she exclaimed as a small body bumped into her. "What do you think you're doing, huh?!"

"Hn?"

"You can't sleep in here with me! You are covered head to toe in sand and dirt, and not to mention you stink! Especially after eating a giant fish!" So she lay down outside the tent to sleep. Ruby brushed away some of the sand that had been brought into her tent and laid down again.

"Hn, Ruby?"

"Mhmm?"

"What Ruby wish?"

"I just want to see if the dragon can tell me how energy surpasses the universal constant... well, don't worry about that. It would take me hours just to explain the question to you. Why, do you want to wish for something? There's supposed to be three wishes you know."

"Nam not know what wish for."

"Well, that figures. You can't want much when you don't know anything."

"Nam wish for life supply of tomato."

"Go to sleep!"

Nam dreamt that she was driving Ruby's boat across the ocean at insane speeds. She lay down across the bottom to relax. Then she tried to get up, but her back was glued to the boat. The boat started to fly into the air. It rolled over as it levitated so Nam could see the ocean beneath her as she went higher and higher...

Ruby dreamt that she was climbing up to the canopy on the Kozaru island. There was a monkey about her height with red fur. "Who are you?" "I think you know who I am." "Taf?" "That's right, and now you will pay the price for your theft!" The surroundings darkened and the monkey god's eyes turned pitch black and sinister. He disappeared and Ruby found herself whirling around until her back bumped into the totem pole. She tried to step forward but she was glued to the pole.

Ruby's eyes opened and she saw the ground several feet below her. She blinked for a few seconds, before realizing that she was tied to a pole. Olive-colored bug people carried her to an unknown destination. They had four limbs and were bipedal. Their faces had large black eyes and thin antennae. They were only about the size of human children, but they used frames made out of wooden planks and logs to hoist up their hostages as they walked. There were about eight of them in total.

"W-what the, where are we—Nam! Nam, wake up!"

"Mmm, tch, tch… morning!"

"Open your eyes stupid!"

"Huh?" She looked around, taking in the situation. "You guys Ruby friends? Nam happy to meet!"

"Like hell these are my friends! Can't you see we're in trouble here? You'd better _do something_ before we become their breakfast!"

"Hn? Is you guys bad guys?"

"Ah, good morning ladies!" one of the bugs said. "We're so glad you've chosen Oomushi island as your tropical getaway, sensation destination!"

"Umm, the fuck?"

"As for the first part of your tour, you'll be privileged to mate with our glorious leader. Oh, don't be nervous now, he's quite taken by the women of your species! He's really not into kids like that though, I assume you brought it along as a food offering?"

"First of all, ew, ew, ew, ew! Second, you'd better put me down right now! Or else you're the ones who are going to be made into a food offering!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we do not receive threats to our people lightly. You'll have to be interviewed by security before you can have the honor of copulating with our glorious leader. Oh, that's right. I _am_ the head of security… Well then, first question! What breed of tomato do you use to color your hair?"

"I—how dare you! This must be some kind of a joke!"

"The suspect refuses to answer question 1. Question 2 then, what color are your panties?"

"Urk!"

"I can see it from right here, boss. It's pink," said one of the bugs carrying the other side.

"Pink! Oh, how exciting! That reminds me of the glorious leader's very first woman…"

"The entomologist?"

"Oh, yes, that's what she called it. And then when she thought the glorious leader was an egg-bearing female, oh ho ho ho ho!"

"I can't listen to this any longer!" Ruby whined and shut her eyes, as if that would block out her hearing as well, and hoped that Nam would do something to break free soon. Just so, Nam had taken the time to wiggle her tail loose of the ropes binding her and use it to untie them. She swung across the log to the two bugs in front and kicked them in the heads with one foot each. The other two dropped their side in surprise and attacked her. She jumped up and punched them in the back of the heads one by one as they came.

"The dinner menu is attacking us! Quickly, kill it!" The four carrying Ruby decided to drop her immediately and attack together. "Oomph!" She moaned as she fell face-first into the dirt with no free hands to help herself.

Three of the bugs attacked Nam at close range while one of the stayed behind and hurled a ball of spit at her. It hit her on the cheek and splashed into her eye a bit. "Hss!" She felt the burn and shut her one eye, but didn't lose her concentration and knocked out the bugs one by one with a punch, sidestep, punch, and a kick. The last one, the one who was the leader of the guard squad that had been interrogating Ruby, got scared and tried to run away. Nam picked up the log (with Ruby still on it) and used it to squash him into the ground. "Hah hah! Nam beat monsters! Hn? Where Tomato go?" She looked around, then heard a muffled voice. She nudged the log, turning it over and revealing a pissed off girl.

"Bugs gone now. Nam untie you!" she announced while doing so. As soon as the teen was free she clenched her fist and punched the other girl in the head with all her might. "Ow ow ow!"

"Handle me more gently! That is, if you're actually trying to save me. I thought maybe you just wanted me to die faster!"

"Hmph, Ruby soft like squishy fruit," she said, as they turned back in the direction that their captors' footprints had come from. "Eh?! Bugs broke Nam spear!" It was on the ground near the tent, broken in half from someone stomping on it. She picked up the pieces and tried to fit the broken ends together.

"You'd best forget about it. A spear isn't a good weapon to carry around in society anyways. It's not really useful for fighting somene without killing them, is it?"

"Mhmm..."

"And you don't have a way to carry it other than in your hands when you're not using it."

"Mhmm..."

"We can get you something else. A staff maybe? Just like a spear but without the pointy end!"

"No… Nam fight hands. Is fine," she dismissed the shards of her old hunting weapon. "Nam not need. But little bit sad. Used spear all life for defend Kozaru!"

"I see, it's a bit like letting go of an old friend, isn't it?"

"Mhmm."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine without it. You kicked those bugs' asses easily enough."

"Yeah!"

As they traveled the ocean wide, Nam soon got bored and fell asleep by the time they reached mainland. When the older girl nudged her awake, the sun was low in the sky, and the coastline was bathed in a golden light.

"Waah! H-huge island!"

"That's not an island… it's the edge of an entire continent! Before you know it, we'll be so far inland that the ocean won't be anywhere near us."

"Human live there, is called Human Content?!" She conjectured, based on the two islands she knew of that were named after the type of people that lived on them.

"No, it's called North America."

"Oh."

The boat slowed down next to a dock. Nam hopped out of the boat, and started picking up the front end.

"Wait Nam, we don't need to put the boat up on land this time."

_Plop! _"Hn?"

"I just need to do this… mmh… tie this here…" She muttered as she tied the boat to the cleat.

"Ahah!"

"There! Good to go!"

They entered a small shop near the docks. There was a boy of thirteen or fourteen at the counter. "Hey, I'm here to return these keys. But where's, er..."

"My dad? He just went out to the hardware store. It's fine, I can take care of you."

"Oh, great!" Ruby put the keys on the counter as the boy signed off a rental document and then put the keys away somewhere.

"_Sniff, sniff…_ Something weird about this person," Ruby and the cashier boy both jumped back as Nam was climbing up onto the counter and inspecting the boy with a perplexed expression. "Looks… different."

"It's a _boy!_" Ruby mock-exclaimed while pulling Nam off the counter by her hair. "And you're gonna have to learn to figure that without climbing over counters."

"Oh! Ruby soft and skinny too. So Ruby also boy!"

"NO! I'm a girl!" She yelled angrily and punched the ignorant child on the head. "_You're_ the one who's unusually buff for a girl! I'm normal!"

"Oh... smell was difference. Nam understand now."

"Y-you! Don't tell me you..." she trailed off, blushing. The youth at the counter laughed. "Does that mean she was sniffing my junk? Hahaha! Hahahahaha!" The boy thought it was really funny and couldn't stop laughing. Ruby's face flushed in embarrassment and she dragged Nam out of the store. Just as they left the store, a man was getting out of his car and walking towards the entrance. Ruby recognized him as the shop owner from when she originally rented the boat. "Hey Dad, guess what?!" They heard the boy sniggering from inside the shop.

"Oh my god!" The little girl with the tail followed as Ruby sprinted away, putting as much distance between herself and the shop as she could. Stopping after about two minutes, she put her hands on her knees and panted. "...Tired already?" asked the child who didn't seem to realize Ruby was running for any reason other than for the fun of it.

"You just think you're so cute, don't you?" Nam did not respond vocally, but tilted her head a bit.

"Now where go?"

"Well… we're going to have to—oh!" She realized something as she was looking at the island child. "It's way too late now, the stores will all be closed," she rambled to herself. "We'll have to stay at a hotel in town and go shopping tomorrow."

"Hotel? Shopping?"

"Come on, then."

Later on, they had gotten a hotel room. "Ah, a real bed!" She sighed as she let her backpack slump to the floor and face-planted onto one of the soft beds. Nam copied her and belly flopped onto the mattress. "Hehehe, soft!" Ruby turned over and made an icky face, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. "You really stink, you know that? Why don't you go take a bath?"

"Hn? What is bath?"

"For washing yourself. In here," they went into the bathroom. Ruby tried to start the water, but first it came out strong from the shower head. "Eek!" After getting splashed, she turned it off and pulled a lever on the faucet. Then the water came out of the bathtub faucet, but she sat there for a minute turning the handle in different directions and testing the water with her hand.

"Hnn… Ruby really know how bath work?"

"O-of course I do! There, that's a nice temperature, huh?" Nam took off her fur loincloth and stepped in the water. "Brrr, cold!" She hugged herself with her arms and used her tail to turn the lever to about 3 o' clock without even looking. After about 3 seconds, the water became hot enough to blend in with the cold water and make the bath the perfect temperature.

"How does that even—you know what, just… Soap for washing. Towels for drying. Have fun, see you later," she said dismissively and left the bathroom. Nam was just unwrapping the soap ten seconds later, when Ruby exclaimed "Oh!" to herself and poked her head back into the bathroom. She looked up at her. "And the toilet is for peeing and pooping in," she pointed and said with a deadpan glare that said 'Don't you dare mess that one up'. "Mn," the child nodded. After the teenager left again, she went back to inspecting the soap. She liked when it became slippery and bubbly. She decided to try eating it and bit over half of it. Her expression paled and she spit it out. "Ptu!" She immediately turned the bathtub faucet back on and used it to thoroughly wash away the horrible taste.

Later on, when Ruby had bathed as well, and changed into a summer pajama set of silky red shorts and a loose white t-shirt, she plopped down onto the bed. Nam followed suit and plopped down next to her. "Oomfs!"

"Yeek, you're _not_ sleeping next to _me_ naked, young lady!"

"Hn?"

"Over there!" she whined, pointing to the other bed. Nam obeyed, and moved over to the other bed. "Tomatoes like their space," she noted.

"Hmph!"

"G'night!"

Ruby woke up and gathered up all her stuff from the hotel room. "Hmm? Where is that little jungle kid?" She looked over and noticed the window was open. Two and a half stories down, Nam was doing some warm-up exercises or something on the lawn. A young couple walked by, giggling and pointing. The woman pulled out a scouter and snapped a picture. "What a showoff!" scowled the teenager from her hotel window. After leaving the room and walking down to where Nam was, she yelled from the doorway, "Hey, come in here, they've got free breakfast!" At that last word, the girl immediately whirled around and rushed inside.

Ruby helped herself to a modest breakfast of toasted english muffins, coffee, and a banana. As she ate, she observed, with increasing discomfort, as her companion went back and forth between the buffet and their table with piles of sausages, eggs, fruits, and muffins, until most of the food had been consumed. "How can you eat so much?!" She gawked.

"Because Nam hungry. BUUURP!"

"There's something just not normal about that! Hm?" She looked at the doorway for a moment to see that one of the chefs was coming in to check what needed to be refilled. "Let's _go,_ I don't want to get in trouble!" She hushed as she grabbed Nam by the arm and tried to hurry her out of the cafe without looking too suspicious. The chef looked over the bins and his eyes went wide. "I just refilled those sausages a minute ago!" He exclaimed as the guilty travelers were exiting just behind him.

"I hope you enjoyed your stay, and your complimentary breakfast!" said the lady at the reception desk when Ruby handed over the room key. "Food was good!"

"Sh-shut up!" The redhead hissed as they turned away and hurried out the door.

"Where dragon balls?"

"The next one for us is up north about two days by car."

"Huh? What is car?" She asked as the were just exiting the parking lot and walking up to a crosswalk. "Those are cars," Ruby pointed to the cars, only four of them on the road so early in the morning. The loud engine noises were disconcerting to the island girl. "Hoh! What fearsome creatures!" She commented as she stood on guard.

"They aren't alive, they're just machines. There's a person driving every single one. It's a vehicle, like the boats."

"Land boats roar like jaguar."

"Come on, just wait for them to cross, and then it's our turn to walk… See?"

"Hmm..."

"Come along, then! Before we go anywhere, you've got to get some proper clothes."

"Clothes? Like Ruby?"

"Yes, girls can't just walk around without a shirt. Luckily you don't have anything to show yet. How old are you anyways?"

"Eight. What Nam show?"

"Well, you're going to develop a more womanly figure when you get older," she explained.

"So… Nam get tomato on chest like you?"

"You… you do realize that you might want to keep on my good side, considering I'm the one buying you stuff for free?!"

"Oh, yeah! Stuff!"

"Don't get the wrong idea! I'm only buying you what you need for my own benefit anyways. I can't have you embarrassing me all the time. Or at least… less often," she raised an eyebrow and pulled Nam away from sniffing people at a bus stop.

"This way. Hmm," she wandered around the shopping area and paused at a sports and outdoors store. "Don't _touch_ everything you see," she warned, as they walked inside. Nam started admiring some battle armor pieces that were displayed on the wall. "That's not what we're getting!" Ruby said. She stood next to a rack that had packages of underwear and stuff.

"Hello, can I help you with anything?" A store hand in her 40s came over and asked the teenager.

"Oh, yes ma'am. Could you guess what size this girl is?"

"Hmm, well let me see… Why don't you try one of these, honey? I'd go with 10-12 for both tops and bottoms." After a while, they had picked out clothes and shoes for Nam. They went to the cashier. The lady said, "Would you like me to alter the bottoms for her? It'll take maybe a half an hour."

"That sounds great! Nam, why don't you stay here with the nice lady for a little while?"

"Hm? Where Ruby go?"

"I'll get us a car and come back soon."

"Ok." She watched as her guide to civilization walked out the door and left her to fend for herself.

"Hi," she grinned at the lady who was starting to work on her clothes. The lady smiled back nervously, "Hi sweetie."

Ruby looked around the street as she walked. She held her scouter in her hand with the screen flipped backwards. "Here it is," she said and walked into a business called Llama – Car Rentals.

"And there you are! You look so cute!" said the store lady after Nam was dressed in a pair of purple shorts and a plain white t-shirt. She had short white socks and simple black shoes. Ruby came back into the store as well and saw her. "Nice, you look like a normal kid now. More or less."

"Shoes feel strange."

"You'll get used to it! Besides, you can take them off in the car."

"Car?"

"Yeah, come on. Let's go." Ruby had acquired a small blue sports car with two white racing stripes over the hood and trunk, and a black convertible roof. Nam sat in the backseat and stuck her head out the window like an excited puppy as they drove through town and set off on the highway.


	3. Chapter 3

They followed the location of the dragon ball north until the highway and southern climate gave way to Midwestern prairies. A sign read "Apichi 15" where they turned off the highway onto gravel roads and farmland. The crops appeared to suffer heavy damage from animals eating and trampling them. As they were driving, suddenly a small animal ran across the road. Ruby slammed on the breaks, but front bumper hit the animal with a deadly force, and it fell down on the road.

"That's a bummer," she said. She got out of the car and tentatively used her shoe to roll the corpse over to the grass by the side of the road. It was a tall rodent with blonde fur, black claws, and a short tail. Nam, who had been sleeping in the backseat, got up and peered out the window with droopy eyes. Ruby glanced at the bumper, seeing that it was not dented. She got back in the car and started to continue driving. As they drove, they occasionally saw more rodents seeming to leer at them from their hiding spots in the grass.

"Those things are creepy!" Ruby complained. "Hm," Nam shrugged. They kept on going until they drove into a very small neighborhood consisting of just a few houses and farm sheds. "Let's get out here and look around..." There was no one out and about. It was all very quiet and still. But there were some very peculiar, human-shaped rock statues. They were pretty imposing with each being about 15 feet tall. Their bodies were decorated with some dark blue tattoo-like designs.

"Weird guys!" Nam put her hands on her hips as she walked up and inspected the statues.

"The dragon ball is just a little ways up to the north here," Ruby said, looking at the locator in her hand.

"Get away from there! Those golems are dangerous!" yelled a man. The girls whirled around and looked off to the side, where a man had opened his porch door and stepped out to yell to them. "Daddy, come back inside!" a little girl tugged at his pants behind him.

"What's a golem..." Ruby was wondering, when one of the statues suddenly swiped the dragon ball locator out of her hand. "Ah! Hey, give that back—" she started to say, but looking up at the statue which glowed slightly and made a move towards her, she cowered back on the ground. "Eeek, please don't hurt me!"

"Hey, leave Ruby alone!" Nam yelled.

"**Be quiet, you stupid child!"** A voice reverberated from an indeterminate location near the golems, as if broadcast from a speaker in a metal box. The voice was harsh, yet childish and didn't fit at all with the appearance of the statues. **"Do you have any idea who you are dealing with?"**

"Who you?"

"**I am the grrrand wizard Fuji! I own this land, and I don't tolerate any insubordination!"**

"You wizard? Look like rock."

"**Ho ho, you simpleton. What you are speaking to is merely a construct forged from my will alone!"**

"Huh? Nam not understand. Nam think… is rock."

"**Grr, you had better watch your mouth, you insolent fool! Or else I'****m going to**** pound you into the ground, like this!"** The golem bent on its knees, and pounded the ground with its fists. It looked scary enough to make all the onlookers flinch, but Nam was not fooled. Besides the rush of wind, she couldn't see that the fists had hit the ground with very much power.

"So stop talk, come fight Nam," she was starting to get annoyed.

"**Are you stupid, kid?! You're going to get killed by this thing!"**

"Be quiet! Hurry up, give back that," she demanded, pointing to the locator.

"**Hah! Y****ou'll never get it back when I do… this!"** The golem near Ruby turned and started running away, while the one near Nam pulled back its fist to attack her. The golem's fist struck her in the cheek, and she stumbled backwards a bit. "Oh no!" cried the civilians from their porch, seeing a helpless little child getting beat up by the fearsome sentry. Nam touched her cheek lightly with her hand. **"****Hah, take that! That hurt, didn't it?" **The golem struck her again, with its other hand, but Nam flicked her tail across to deflect, striking it with such force that the entire wrist just popped off and fell onto the ground.

"Woah!" cried the onlookers.

"**I, uh..."**

"Weak rock," she commented, and jumped up to punch the golem in the middle. The entire thing just popped out of existence.

"Huh?"

"Hmm, who knew those things were that flimsy?" The man watching from the porch mused.

"It's getting away with the locator!" The other golem turned its head back as it ran, looking cornered.

"**Hold it right there, turn back now or face my might!"** The voice sounded as there was a cloud of smoke between them, and an absolutely massive dragon with wings stood there. It had red scales and a tan underside. "Holey moley..." breathed the onlooker as his daughter still stood behind him clutching his leg. The dragon roared violently as it breathed a jet of fire over the girls' heads. "Yee!" Ruby yelled and crouched on the ground. But Nam felt no actual heat from the display, so she simply jumped up and punched the illusion in the stomach. It made a choking noise and froze up for a second, before it also popped out of existence.

"Wow!" yelled the little girl who was watching, and ran outside. Some of the neighbors who had been watching from their windows also came out to see what was going on. The local kids gathered around Nam. "You're so strong!" "Where are you from?" "What's your name?"

"Did you guys come here to help us?" asked one of the adults.

"We've got no time to sit and chat! After that golem!" Nam leaped forward, covering hundreds of feet with every stride, and tackled the remaining golem, punching through its body to the ground as it disappeared with a 'poof'. She retrieved the dragon ball locator and stood back up.

"**Darn you **stupid little.." the voice cursed while quickly fading out.

"I'll bet you anything this 'Fuji' has our dragon ball."

"On this road," Nam pointed.

"Most likely," nodded the redhead. They left the tiny farming village behind and continued on the path that the fleeing golem had tried to take. After about 5 minutes of walking a steady incline, they came to the top of a hill where there was a small mansion. It looked like a stereotypical haunted mansion. It even had a budget wire fence and a few sickly looking bushes for decoration. In front of the gate stood a figure of the same height as Nam. He was a humanoid creature wearing a kimono-influenced robe that was white with black linings. He carried a thin staff that looked like it was made out of a high-quality hard plastic, imitating a branch and ending in a pink fruit with curling green leaves. He had blue skin, no hair, and small bumps on his forehead that were somewhere between horns and antennae. His most distinguishing features were his two massive, bat-like ears on the sides of his face.

"That's as far as you meddlesome humans go! I'll give you one last chance to hand over your dragon balls and the locator, and leave this place! It is foolish to stand against me, the grrrand wizard Fuji!"

"Oh, shut up! The only thing grand about you is your mouth. Your illusions suck!"

"Stupid girl! You'll wish you had never set foot in this place! Arise, Scourge of the Fields, Prairie Demon!" The ground beneath their feet started to shake and buckle. "Aah!" Nam cried as her foot fell through the crumbling ground and she staggered. The ground crumbled and broke apart, held together by sinews of plant roots that were stretching and snapping under stress. A tan, furry 4-fingered paw with black fingernails emerged from under Nam's foot and she hopped back. Ruby got up from where she had fallen on her butt and tried to distance herself from the center of the action. Nam tried a punch on the fingers, but it seemed to anger the being, causing it to come up faster. She finally decided to join the older girl and hop away from the sinking pitfall, but dirt and rocks fell on her, pushing her down in tumbles of damp earth as a giant beast emerged from the depths. The dragon ball locator that she had been carrying fell out of her hands and ended up on the loose surface. Ruby forgot to breath for a few seconds as she looked up at the gargantuan rodent crawling out of the pit in the ground. A muffled cry was heard as it stepped on the tiny girl on its way out. It stood up on its hind legs and towered over the teenager. The creature looked like a fat prairie dog that was at least the size of a dump truck. Its claws were particularly sharp, and it had dark shadows around its glowing red eyes.

Fuji tip-toed over and retrieved the locator from the soil. He backed up while looking up towards the massive creature. "P-prairie Demon, dispose of the intruders immediately, and give me whichever dragon balls they have gathered!" It calmly settled its gaze upon him in response. "Why have you called me? Do you think I am your servant?"

"W-well, if you would assist me! Have I not ensured your kind's survival against the farmers who would exterminate you like pests?"

"I have already fulfilled my promise to you. I have found the dragon ball that you asked for. These _additional _favors are not part of our bargain. Shall I feed you next to my pack?"

"A-ah, b-but!"

Ruby had a sudden thought, "Hey! Aren't you the one who's causing the mice to destroy all the crops around here?"

"Hold it, you!" the towering giant snapped his gaze to the young woman. "My kind are known as prairie dogs, not mice. That is an inferior creature. And you… You are the tomato-head human."

"Urk!"

"_You_ have spilled our blood."

"W-wait!" Ruby thought back to when she had run over the small rodent on the road. "How can you even know about that?"

"It is pointless to try and explain to an inferior creature. You must now be exterminated, but you shall not die in vain. For while my kind can eat grass to their hearts' content, the taste of meat is a luxury that we do not turn down!"

Nam managed to dig herself out of the ground behind the beast as it approached the other girl. "Hey, fatty!" she yelled. The large creature turned towards her for only a moment, and she threw a fist-sized rock straight into its eye. "GYAH!" It yelled and put its paws over its eye. Nam broke all the way out of the ground with a small hop. The giant prairie dog stepped low and took a paw off of its face to swipe at the small child. She jumped up and kicked its forhead, causing it to stagger backwards. She bounced back off of it and landed on the ground in a fighting stance. "Come on, monster!"

"Grrr! Why are you so strong?! Wait! You've got a tail! You're one of those... strong humans!"

"Hn?"

"What, is that supposed to mean something?" Ruby muttered.

"It does not matter to me. You are still an inferior creature. I will kill you quickly." It attacked again with its paws, but she maneuvered through them and leaped up at full speed with a kick to its sensitive nose. The monster yelled in pain and fell backwards. With one of its paws clutching its nose, Nam easily followed up with a kick to its exposed groin area.

"Hah! Nam winner!" She grinned proudly and put her hands on her hips.

"I… didn't know she was actually _that_ strong," Ruby said in surprise. "I mean, good for me." She was walking over to the little fighter when the defeated demon began to stir. "Urrg..." It struggled to prop its body up a bit off the ground. It raised its head and called in a strange chattering tone that reverberated eerily around the open landscape.

"W-what's he doing?" They both backed up slowly and looked around. There was a _hiss_ of the wind rustling through the tall fields. A crowd of high-pitched chattering grew in volume around them. Nam barely reacted in time, pivoting on one foot to dodge a bite from a normal-sized prairie dog that came flying out of nowhere. All around them, menacing red eyes appeared in the brush as more possessed prairie dogs swarmed around them to attack. Nam resorted to hurling energy blasts at the approaching crowds. There were too many of them, and the girls backed up around the defeated demon.

"There's no way out, they're gonna kill us!"

"Hyah! No! Too many!"

"Gyaaah, I don't know what to do! Quick, finish off the leader!"

"Eh?!" Nam whirled around. "Aah!" She cried and fell onto her knees, feeling a sharp pain on her tail. Another prairie dog had leaped and gotten a bite on her. When she dropped, another jumped and bit sharply into her leg. Meanwhile, Ruby screamed in fear. At least ten were surrounding her and were about to start devouring her. In a surge of desperation, Nam yanked the one rodent off of her leg, and slammed her tail with the other into the ground so hard that there was a big indentation left. She leaped forwards and landed on the Prairie Demon's chest, using both hands to deliver a finishing energy blast that severed the vessels in its neck, causing it to die within seconds.

It seemed to have been the right call, as the crazed rodents suddenly slowed down in their actions, and looked confused for a few seconds while looking at each other and chattering. They decided to retreat back into their burrows, leaving the girls in peace. "I can't believe that worked!" the teen sighed and stood up, brushing herself off and catching her breath. "Come on, we've got to hurry up and get the locator back!"

Nam took the lead and ran ahead. She ripped off the fence gate and busted down the front door of the mansion so Ruby could get through easily. "Huh?" She looked around at the ground and pointed. "Fuji down there..."

"How do you know that?"

"Nam feel."

"Uh, well… we've got to find the stairs down then." Nam chose a door to the right of the foyer and Ruby went through one on the opposite side. Nam entered a small corridor where there were several more doors. Ruby found a dining room that smelled awful. "Ugh," she held her nose. As she walked around, her foot hit something soft. Looking down she was just on the verge of freaking out, as in the dim light she could make out some sort of possibly human body impaled on spikes coming out of the floor.

"Found it!" Nam called, but Ruby was already on her way and bolted by her side as soon as she turned to yell. "Oh! This way!" she pointed and they started walking down a spiral of stairs. After running through another hall, there was a fairly large room where some lab equipment and office things were strewn around on various tables, and a few other connecting doors could be seen on the walls.

"H-ho?!" The short blue wizard jumped in surprise, turning his head for a moment to look back at them from a door across the room. He had the dragon ball locator in his other hand and quickly went through the door. "Come back here right this instant!" They ran across the room into another hallway where they could see a straight staircase and natural light shining in on the other side. Nam tackled the small wizard and easily took back the locator from his grasp. "You've got a dragon ball, haven't you?" Ruby demanded.

"Grr, get off me!" he yelled in frustration, and threw a dragon ball out of his pocket.

"You go. Go far away now!" said Nam, stepping back just enough to allow Fuji to wriggle free and make a run for the exit. "Don't come back this town!" she called to him as he scrambled up the steps. Ruby bent down in the dark corner and picked up the dragon ball. They held it under the light and inspected it. It was pearly white and had three tiny purple stars. "Great, now we've got the 2-star, 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star balls! Just two more to go!"

"Wow!"

The girls leisurely walked up the breezy steps which ended in an open cellar trapdoor on the outside of the mansion. Ruby stretched in the afternoon sunlight. "Ah, I'm glad that's over with! I am positive that mansion is filled with booby traps!" Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound close by. "Hn?!" Ruby stared at Nam, who was rubbing her tummy. "That came from you?"

"Nam hungry."

"Uh oh… Hey, I've got it! I bet those people in town would be willing to throw us a feast, seeing as we've just saved their livelihood."

"Yeah!" With four dragon balls and the locator under their belt, and the day saved, they happily set off on the path back down to the town.

Elsewhere, in another secret underground facility, a certain bat-eared wizard furiously typed at a computer terminal mounted into the wall and ranted to himself. "Heh heh heh heh! Go ahead you silly little girls. Find all the dragon balls you want!" The latest line on his command line indicated that his program had finished compiling. He loaded up a window which displayed a dark blue grid on which there were six pink dots. "Don't mind me, I'll just be watching your every move and—" He paused and rubbed his eyes. His eyes turned into circles as he stared at the screen.

"Wait, _what_?!"


End file.
